Divergent Infinity - Book I: Era of The Fall
by PeriQuill
Summary: What started as a field trip turned into a ride on a spaceship for teenager Peter Parker. But things take a turn for the worse when Peter fails to stay on the ship after getting a new suit from Tony Stark, and he is sent careening down towards Earth. The playing fields have been altered by one, the hand of fate is weighing new options, and the clock is ticking... ON HIATUS!


**Chapter 1: What Might Have Been**

_**15 minutes earlier…**_

I always remembered what my Aunt May told me throughout that year. I remembered her rules, her demands, and her stipulations. The list ran through my head constantly every hour. I knew, while I very much disagreed with her on the issues, that she was right; I knew that I couldn't bring the suit with me outside of our neighborhood in Queens… and that day, I brought the suit with me anyway.

It was a force of habit back then. I always brought whatever suit I had at the time with me to school. And ever since May found out, I had been trying to break that habit. But habits like that are always hard to break.

As I sat on the bus on a trip to MoMA (the Museum of Modern Art), I couldn't help but wonder what my life would be like in 10 years… would I still be trying to hide this secret of mine; would everyone know who was behind the mask? I asked myself those a lot last year, but a new question was on my mind this year: in 10 years, would I still be who I tell myself I should be? Would I still be Spider-Man?

"Yo, Pete!"

I perked my head up from behind the seat in front of me, seeing Ned looking at me with an excited look on his face.

"What's up, Ned?" I said with a tired voice.

"This just happened while we were waiting for the bus to leave before. Check this video out."

Ned lifted his phone up towards me. He tapped the play button on the screen.

The video showed a rooftop level view of what looked to be some kind of party. People dancing, some DJ playing music… I could feel years being taken off my life watching it all.

"That's great, Ned." I said almost dejectedly. I was about to turn his head back down when I felt Ned tap my hand repeatedly.

"Hold on!" Ned pleaded. "It's not over yet. It's coming up in a second."

I lifted my head again, continuing to watch begrudgingly, but then the video got interesting quickly. The camera caught sight of what looked like some meteorite blazing over the city sky. For a moment, it looked like it was gonna hit the party members, but it actually went over them. The camera whirled around soon after it passed, and a hole in a big round window on an older mansion on the next block could be seen.

"What the heck was that thing?" I immediately asked.

Ned shrugged. "I'm not sure. But that house… that's the weird house in Greenwich Village! Remember?"

_Oh wow, that place…_

"The one with the crazy window?" I wanted to confirm he was thinking of the same one; there are some weird looking houses around the city, even in Greenwich village.

"It looks just like it. Same green roof and everything." Ned scrolled back in the video to show the house off. Yeah, it was definitely the same house, no reason to argue otherwise.

"Huh." I simply replied. I leaned back and looked out my window, almost expecting to see a suit of armor flying over the bus or some jet to fly across the sky. I was always expecting it. Sometimes it happened. Sometimes it never did. It just made me feel worse.

"You think they need help?" Ned whispered, leaning over his seat so I could hear him better.

I knew what he was gonna try to do. "I don't know." I tried to answer safely.. "Even if I did know, I couldn't do anything…"

I saw Ned frown immediately after hearing that. "She's still holding that iron grip over you?"

I curled my face in. Yep... Ned was gonna make me talk about this again.

"It's not an iron grip…" I attempted to reason quietly. "As long as I keep my patrols from crossing out of our neighborhood into the city, I'm good. And if I get home before 9 if I can."

"You didn't tell me she put a curfew on you." Ned remarked.

I bumped my head against my seat slightly. I did not mean to let that slip.

"Cause I didn't want you to know. Look, I'm already in a bad mood right now because I accidentally brought the suit with me tod–"

Ned looked like his whisper could burst into a yell at any second. "You brought the suit again?"

I tried to shush as unobviously as possible, and repeated, "Accidentally!"

He smirked slightly at me. "You know what that means? This is clearly hardwired into you. You shouldn't have to listen to her tell you how to do this, just like Tony Stark, right?

I was beginning to get frustrated; I was just trying to sightsee out the window, but Ned kept bringing me out of it. I had to be quiet though. "Ned… I'm trying to use this trip to take my mind off of all that, all right? It hurts me a lot to not be allowed to stop something bad happening out here. As much as I may want to stop a mugging or housefire, I can't risk May finding it on social media somewhere."

Ned's brow furrowed; he seemed confused or… perhaps more concerned. "I don't think that should really stop you from doing the ri–"

"She's the only thing I have left, Ned…" I snapped back as quietly as I could. "And I'm all she has left. I… I have to do this… for her."

Ned began to slide back into his seat. "Sorry, man. I just thought–"

I turned my gaze out the window again; we were a stoplight away from crossing the Queensboro bridge. "I know, Ned… look, I'm not feeling great today. I need some time on the ride over to myself."

I could tell Ned disliked the idea, but noticed Ned nod in my peripheral nonetheless.

"Tap me if you need anything." He quickly inserted before putting his headphones back in.

I rested my arm against the top of Ned's seat and leaned my head against the back of it. The bus began to move across the bridge.

_Why did he have to bring up a dead argument?_

I wanted to help the city. I really did. But May wouldn't let me… and I understood why. She was afraid of losing me. After she lost Ben, why would she be okay with potentially losing me… even if I was doing what I felt I needed to do?

It made sense to me, but somewhere inside, deep in my gut… I knew that I really should be doing something about–

WOOSH...

My body suddenly tensed. I could feel goosebumps everywhere. I raised my head to view my arm… even the little hairs were standing up.

_Don't tell me this has to do with the house…_

I whipped my head back out the window… and that's when I saw it: a ring spaceship, hovering over what was most likely Greenwich Village.

And seeing that… it did me in. There was no question about what I had to do.

_I'm gonna catch May's wrath for this one._

* * *

_**Now… **_

I looked down below the ship I was currently clinging to as New York City was quickly being covered with clouds.

"And I thought…" I began to joke between breaths, "... that the Washington Monument was bad!"

As the ship rose higher and higher, I had to fight my gut feeling to leap away. Mr. Stark had given me a mission: I had to save the wizard. I hadn't always been willing to do what Mr. Stark told me to… but I knew the current circumstances called for me to follow his lead. It had to happen; I couldn't just give up.

I had already scaled a good chunk of the ship's curvature as it was, but I hadn't found a way inside of it yet… and even though we hadn't even gotten through the stratosphere yet, I could feel the air growing thinner. Time was running out. I had to press on.

Every time I pressed my fingers against the ship's metal, I had to tense up to keep myself awake. I couldn't afford to…

"Kid!" A strong voice arrived in my earpiece.

I arched my head away from the ship; I instantly recognized the voice.

"Mr. Stark!" I called out below me. I could see Stark flying upwards to the ship. If I wasn't clinging desperately onto the ship at that moment, I probably would have waved to him.

"Pete, you gotta let go!" Mr. Stark ordered. "I'm gonna catch you!"

What? No… no, I couldn't do that. I was so close to getting the wizard out of the ship… well, not really, but I was too stubborn to think otherwise.

"But you said 'save the wizard'!" I shouted back desperately, waving my arm out in an attempt at outrage, but I immediately retracted it back to maintain his posture on the ship.

Of course, to make things worse, I was starting to feel it. The air… I wasn't getting enough of it. And the mask wasn't helping at all.

"I can't breathe…" I huffed out. I quickly reached up and slipped the mask off of my face, desperately opening my lungs to whatever oxygen I could be offered at this height in the atmosphere.

"We're too high up! You're running out of air!" Mr. Stark shouted back.

My mind was starting to fade out. My grip on the wall was slipping slowly. And my eyelids became heavy… as if the planet's gravity was pulling them down along with me.

"Yeah…" I began between my panicked breaths, "... that makes sense."

I wanted to protest Stark further… I really did, deep down… but I was so tired… I just wanted to let go. And so my hand left the wall, and my feet went loose soon after. I flopped backwards. The last thing I saw as I fell down was Mr. Stark flying towards me with a rocket thing flying right by him. And then my eyes closed. I almost went under thinking this was the end…

…

… And if it hadn't been for Mr. Stark, it would have been.

Something clasped against my back. In my initial haze of rejuvenation, I could feel the weird sensation of a million tingles run along my body. And I could feel something… metal… running against my chest, my fingers, the soles of my feet… it was moving everywhere. And as I slowly got my eyes to open, my vision was overtaken by something dark for a brief moment. I couldn't see properly. And then I felt the goosebumps again… _spider sense_.

WHAM! My whole sense of orientation kicked back into gear as my head slammed into something hard and metal as well. I was still close to the ship. As I twirled around, I reached my arms out and clung to the surface again. Then metal across my eyes opened up… and I was immediately surprised I had clung to the ship at all.

I found myself in a brand new suit. It was some kind of alloy, something way more complex than the ship I was on. And whatever it was, it allowed me to be able to apply my "stick-em powers" while also feeling like I was wearing a thick material. It was surprisingly intuitive as well; I could feel plates shifting within as I straightened myself upright on the ship's surface.

I saw Mr. Stark flying up next to me.

_The rocket thing…_ I began to piece together,_ … that was Mr. Stark's!_

"Mr. Stark! It smells like a new car in here!" I cried , I was now excited that I had been basically brought back to life by Tony Stark. Well, not to life, just to consciousness. But I believe it still applied.

"Happy trails, kid!" Mr. Stark swiftly replied.

_What?_

"Friday, send him home."

I felt a sudden pop of pressure at my back. I peered back, believing I was somehow being attacked from behind, but… nope… it was that damn parachute again.

"Oh, coME ON!" I managed to shout, being pulled away from the ship so quickly that I began to doubt the strength of my "stick-em" powers.

_No! I can't leave him behind! Who knows what that guy could do to him if I'm not there!_

I reached my hand out as fast as I could. I was flying by the ship quickly; I had to be fast and precise with this shot.

_Come on, Pete… you got this._

I pressed my middle fingers into my palm.

_You got this._

The webline began to spin from my wrist.

_You got this!_

The shot had just enough velocity to fly out almost straight where I aimed. Almost there…

But the line went slack.

"Huh?" I gasped.

My webline flew away.

_I missed. Oh my god, I… I missed._

"Mr. Stark!" I called out, but the howling winds of the atmosphere consumed my hearing. If Mr. Stark had said anything… I never heard it.

* * *

I had been watching in slight despair as the ship flew onward away from Earth. The sky was beginning to regain its natural light blue hue. That would have comforted me normally, but now wasn't such a good time.

I didn't have much time to marvel at it once my parachute flew right into me. My best guess is that the wind pulled the chute in such a way that was caught in its crossfire. And now I found myself where I was last year… stuck in a parachute. Except this time I had no idea where I was gonna land.

"Come on! Can't I have one break?!" I screamed in fury. I wasn't going to let it win this time. I struggled to even see the opening, but I kept catching a glimpse of sky blue every moment or so.

_Just gotta head that way._

The parachute muted the howling winds for now, so at least I could hear my thoughts, but the sensation of free fall was still making me anxious.

I reached my hand out, hoping to pull down a piece of the parachute to further open the sky to me, but the wind continued to fight me. Despite my "stick-em" powers, I couldn't get a handle on anything. I had tried for so long, I wasn't sure how much time had passed… how much closer I was to the ground.

"Karen, I could really use your help right now." I grumbled to myself with great anxiety. When Mr. Stark gave me my old suit back, my suit AI, Karen, was gone. Maybe she was deactivated… I had no clue. Thankfully, I had become more familiar with how the suit operated, but I still wished I had someone to–

"Mr. Parker," a feminine voice greeted promptly in my ear.

"AH! Who is this?!" I immediately replied in fear.

"My name is Friday." She answered. "I am Mr. Stark's current A.I. assistant. He told me to contact you if you are ever in a severe emergency that he put you in."

"Oh… I guess that's considerate." I responded. I thought back to before the parachute opened. Mr. Stark ordered her to open the chute, so maybe…

"It looks like you're currently in free fall above New York City, Mr. Parker." Friday pointed out.

"Yeah, about that…" I desperately asked while rolling in the chute, "...do you think you could collapse this thing back?!"

"A retraction process wouldn't work well in this scenario unless you were able to exit your parachute." She stayed firmly.

_Great. I get a new suit, and it already isn't doing me favors._

"How far down am I?" I quickly asked.

"You are currently below 3,000 meters above street level."

"3,000 meters?!" I gasped. "Friday, you gotta help me get out of this!"

"What would you like me to do?" She calmly asked, which just irritated me further.

"Any suit function that would get me out of this parachute fast! Please!"

And in that moment, I felt a sudden burst at my back. Had F.R.I.D.A.Y. managed to find a roundabout way of retracting the parachute?

But then I heard what sounded like giant scissors and blades whipping around behind me. Little by little, the sky's blue began to pierce my vision once again. And I could finally unfold myself out of my cocoon.

"Holy crap! I'm out!" I yelped in surprise and slight relief. "I made it o–WOAH!"

That's when I noticed the strange metallic legs that seemed to crane around my body. Four of them, covered in gold, red, and blue alloys, jutting out of a round panel on my back.

"Did you cut through my parachute with these?!" I asked through the howling wind.

"I had to try something to get rid of it." Friday calmly replied.

"Wow, that's incred–wait…" My brain refocused. "... you cut off my parachute?!"

I swung my head around to see my now-tattered parachute falling much slower than me, almost appearing to hover way up where it was cut off.

"You told me to try anything fast." Friday began to repeat.

_CRAP. CRAP, CRAP, CRAP._

"Are you trying to kill me, lady?" I screeched as I turned my eyes back towards the city. It still looked a bit far, but I couldn't tell how fast I was really going.

"Uh... " I started to panic again, "... well, I assume I'm at terminal velocity by this point!"

"You are currently hurtling at approximately 55 meters per second." Friday reaffirmed.

I nodded as best as I could through the wind rushing past my mask. "Feels that fast, that's for sure."

I already knew I was running out of time. At terminal velocity, I had somewhere under a minute before I would hit the ground. And less if I ended up hitting a clouds had mostly passed by now, so I had a better view of my options.

"You are below 2,000 meters above street level." Friday stated.

I tried to analyze the city for a landing zone. Unfortunately, I was unable to angle my fall as well as I would've wanted, so the bodies of water along the sides of the city weren't reasonable options… unless...

"Hey, Friday! Does this suit come with thrusters?" I yelled out. I really didn't need to since Friday was literally in my ear, but the panic was hard to ignore.

"Running suit diagnostics..." She responded.

I was hoping that some other hero would show up to help me… but of the people I knew were still around… I didn't know who could. Or would, for that matter. Was this really gonna be it?

_Please go faster…_

…

_I bet Tony's old AI, Jarvis computed faster than this._

"Negative." She finally answered.

"Of course not." I remarked.

_Those would have been really helpful… even if I'd really only use them this one time._

"This can't be happening. This can't be happening." I kept repeating.

"Please remain calm, Mr. Park–"

"I can't remain calm!" I yelled back. "I'm free falling towards New York City in a suit I have no idea how to use… and if the fall doesn't kill me, then my aunt will!"

The wind blowing by me and my flailing metal spider legs was honestly a moment of respite before Friday spoke again.

"I don't think your aunt would be a more formidable opponent than the grou–."

"Yeah, well, you'd have to meet her…" I grumbled back. "I should've just stayed on the bus! Crap! Cr–WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?!"

Right in front of me emerged sparks of orange light forming a strange pulsating circle. Through the circle, I could see trees and buildings on the other side, pushed away by a long grassy field. I was going to fly straight into it.

"WOAH!"

I sailed through the portal, and the immediate shift in gravity threw me for an immediate loop. I could feel my insides shift violently in response, and my body twirled through the air. I definitely did not expect to experience this today.

I saw the grass flying beneath me, and I could tell it was getting closer. I held up my arms to brace for a rough landing, curled my legs up into my stomach… but then I felt my back pull me up slightly. Peaking my head up, I could see one of my metal legs stabbed into the ground… and slowly my speed. In fact, all four of my legs were trying to do the same.

The legs swiveled me around slightly as the grass beneath uprooted in their stabbing wake. I curled myself up in spite of the legs slowing me down; I had no idea if one of them would suddenly buckle and I'd have to take a hit. But fortunately for me, the legs kept their structure rigid, and I came to a complete stop a good distance away from the portal. And just as quickly as I stopped, the portal collapsed on itself and it was gone.

And then I realized I was now back in Washington Square Park.

"Holy… crap…" was all I had to say to that.

Upon realizing I had actually lived and I wasn't dreaming, I noticed I was still curled up, so I placed my legs on the ground, and my arms immediately unhooked themselves and stood by my side at the ready.

_Are these things controlled with my thoughts or something? This is crazy!_

"Hey, kid, are you all right?" I heard off to my right.

Turning my attention there, I saw two older guys beginning to run up to me. One of them was wearing some raggedy clothes as if he went dumpster diving for them, and the other was wearing… monk robes of some sort? Was this another wizard or something?

"I, uh… I guess I am." I tried to respond simply.

"That doesn't convince, if I'm being honest." The ragged man remarked. For some reason, he looked familiar.

"That was quite the fall you were taking." The monk noted as he arrived. "You were lucky I saw you when I did. That portal was particularly hard to create."

"Wait, that was you?" I asked in astonishment. I had so many questions. "That's incredible! Are you with that other wizard that I was chasing?"

"Yes and yes… is he always this inquisitive?" The monk looked to the other guy.

"Hey, I just met the kid. I got no idea." He immediately answered.

And that's when I finally recognized the ragged man.

"You're Dr. Bruce Banner…" I quickly changed the subject.

"Uh, yeah…" he seemed to squirm at my claim, "yeah, that is me."

"Like, THE Dr. Bruce Banner? With the studies on gamma radiation?"

"That would be me, yes." I was geeking out so much, I honestly didn't notice him getting nervous.

"This is insane! Mr. Stark said you had been gone for 3 years or something! What the heck happened?"

"It's a, uh, long story." He tried to shorten his answer. Guess I would have to pry it out of him later.

"If you two are done chatting," the monk stepped in with a permanent stern expression, "I think it'd be best if we checked back near the Sanctum to see if there is anyone who needs our help."

I straightened my back up and closed my arms back in to compose myself. To be honest, I had almost forgotten we had a bit of a fight down here. Everything up near the ship had been clouding my mind only a minute ago. It was like being snapped back into reality.

"He's right. We should get going." Dr. Banner swiftly agreed.

"You got it, Mr. Magic." I jokingly agreed.

The monk merely stared back with his burning gaze… though I'm sure he meant me no harm. He did open a portal for me, of course.

"Please… call me Wong." He put stiffly.

"Wong… got it." I answered… though I still wanted to call him Mr. Magic so much. "I'll follow you guys."

Wong and Dr. Banner began making their way away from the park, I found my gaze peering back up towards the sky. There was no ship in the sky anymore… I had hoped to see a small flame burning down towards the sky… some sort of light that told me things were still okay. But that light didn't show up. If Mr. Stark was still on that ship… I had no idea where he was now.

But something about today felt different. I didn't just interrupt some Avengers meet-up or something. This felt big… like "not able to turn my back on this" big. People I had never seen before were coming out of the woodwork… people that haven't been on Earth for years. And why now? What was happening that was so important that it involved aliens and wizards?

Whatever the answer, I knew two things for sure: I was gonna miss the rest of my field trip… and my Aunt May was gonna freaking kill me.

* * *

**Welcome to "Divergent Infinity"! Next chapter will be out in around a week!**

**Please feel free to leave a review if you want.**


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